ZAMBIA

Where is Zambia’s

Where is Zambia’s Agriculture? 4

5 Zambian agriculture has three broad categories of farmers: smallholders, medium, and largescale. The smallholder farmers are the majority and are classified into three categories (Category A, B, C). Category A are the smallest and they cultivate between 0 and 2 hectares. They are mainly producers of staple crops especially maize with an occasional marketable surplus. Category B smallholder farmers are those cultivating between 2 and 5 hectares; whilst Category C are those cultivating between 5 and 20 hectares. The medium and large-scale farmers are just a small fraction of the farming community but these farmers produce various crops for both the local and export market. The current estimate of the medium and large scale farmers may be understated because there is evidence to suggest that a lot more home-grown emergent medium and large-scale farmers have established themselves in the past few years. The Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with IAPRI and Michigan State University are currently planning an exercise to update these estimates. Figure 2 illustrates the structure of the Zambian agricultural sector in 2016. Figure 2: Zambia’s Farm Structure Source: Authors illustration with data from Crop Forecast Survey (2016)